


And for you, I’d set the world ablaze

by hopclair



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood, Blood and Injury, Character Death, Choking, Dark, F/M, Heartbreaking, Heavy Angst, Nightmares, Sad, Self-Esteem Issues, vent fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:35:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25502227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hopclair/pseuds/hopclair
Summary: Mike dies and El dies with him.
Relationships: Eleven | Jane Hopper/Mike Wheeler, Martin Brenner & Eleven | Jane Hopper
Comments: 3
Kudos: 26





	And for you, I’d set the world ablaze

"Mike?" El Hopper calls out. She's not loud, but her voice echoes throughout the empty laboratory. The seventeen-year-old thought everything would be okay after that disastrous summer. She thought that the party would be okay and that they wouldn't have to fear anything anymore. The flayed were gone. The mindflayer was gone and they were starting to heal. 

They were healing from everything that happened. Max was starting to laugh as loud as she would before Billy's death and Will could finally take walks by himself without fearing his life. They thought about moving, they really did, but opted against it. Will didn't want to leave his friends behind and El still had hope that Hopper would come back.

But right now, she wished that they had left Hawkins. 

She stands in her old cage. El calls it a cage because it was never a home. A home was a place where you shared smiles and opened gifts on your birthday. This place was where she was used as an experiment and a place that still haunts her dreams. She dreams of being shoved in the tank again and she dreams of being used as a guinea pig. In the dreams her old drawings are bright, still on the wall yet as she walks down the haunting hallways; they're on the floor reduced to bits and memories. 

She doesn't know why her dreams had brought her here again. She finds herself having to collect herself and pull herself together with a hand on her chest. El Hopper has to constantly remind herself that she's not Eleven anymore. That she doesn't kill anymore. That she's an ordinary girl with friends and people that care about her.

She's grown into a lover. Her hands no longer stained with blood and instead are shaped into ones that protect. They hold Max's hands when she's scared between horror movies and they carry Dustin up when he's trying to sneak into the public pool. She's free.

Once she's shoving herself into the room, always cold and full of demands, she wants to run away instantly. She wants to curl into Mike's chest and have him hold her until this disappears. Because now she's standing in front of the monster himself and she's not strong enough for this.

The monster was never the Demogorgon. 

It was never the Mindflayer.

It was Martin Brenner.

His white hair is slicked back, as always and he's in that damned grey suit. The sight of him alone, makes her sick. But what makes her stomach drop in genuine fear, is the fact that Mike lays by his feet. He's idle and she can't feel his heartbeat. She can't feel his warmth. 

"Mike?" She calls out. Her voice shakes and she's trying to quiet her racing heart. She genuinely tries to, but with not even a shake of his feet; her mind is sent into panic. Her entire body is reacting on it's own.

With her right hand, she's throwing Brenner to the side. The powers that did everything he wished for, were now being used against him. A loud thud follows her actions and she's scattering to reach Mike. 

"Mike, Mike." She calls over and over again. Her eyes are budding with tears and she feels her chest squeezing shut. It happened when Joyce shook her head and Hopper was gone. Now it's happening again with Mike. 

Her Mike.

"Come on, Mike. Wake up." She begs. 

" _ Eleven _ , he's gone." Brenner says, his voice echoing deep in her mind. He sounds in pain, but not enough. "I came back for you. It's been so long since i’ve seen my girl.” 

She’s not registering his words. El feels frozen in time and she feels like she’s lost everything. She can hear Brenner. His voice is dug into her head. Yet her hand travels to Mike’s cheek and she’s holding him tight. His eyes are shut and his lips are barely parted. Her brown eyes are wide, almost accepting his fate and tears are drowning her sight. 

_ “El for short.” He had told her. She remembers how small he was. He remembers how short his hair was and how scared he was of everything that went on. How impressed he was with the fact that she had a “tattoo” —  _

Her forehead rests on his own. His body feels cold. 

"Eleven. it's time to  **go** ." Brenner says once again. Has his voice always been this demanding? Has she always been so small compared to him? Has she? 

“ _ You’re not the monster, El. You saved me!" He told her after saving him from the brink of death. She remembers how warm his hug felt and how she finally felt like she belonged someplace. She belonged with Mike.  _

And he killed him. 

She collects herself for a second, watching as Brenner stands on his own two feet and her eyes are full of fire. There’s tears down her face and she looks absolutely destroyed. She might only have a few scratches but her heart was completely ripped to shreds. 

She doesn’t want to leave Mike here. She doesn’t. 

So, El’s decision is to die here with him. 

The brunette plants a kiss on his forehead, a kiss of goodbye to both him and herself. She wants to cling to his body and pray that he’ll come back. Maybe he was in the upside down like Will had been. But she knew that wasn’t the case. She knew Mike Wheeler was gone for good. 

**“Eleven.”**

With a bare tilt of her head, Brenner’s bare body is once again slammed to the wall and she’s playing with him. She’s hurting him for the fun of seeing him in pain. But it wasn’t fun. It wasn’t fun because she couldn’t bring Mike back. 

_ Had Mike been in pain too?  _

_ Did he call out her name?  _

**"El... Listen to me.”**

He has no right to call her that. He has no right to claim the nickname that brought her so much peace. Her eyes can’t stop aching and she’s raising her right hand. Her body is begging her not to do this. It’s reminding her that she’s not a monster. That everybody she’s killed, was in the past. 

But she's lost everything. 

His face is turning red and he can’t breathe. She feels his lung squeezing shut and she remembers the feeling. The pain of going through it. She remembers when Billy wrapped his hand around her own, leaving a mark and how her boyfriend had tried to come to her rescue. 

She couldn't save him. 

She tightens her lock on him and he’s on the last line. It’s the last call. If she were to kill him, she didn’t have to do much from here. Her nose was trickling blood but it seemed to wash away with the tears that wouldn’t stop coming from her body. She couldn’t stop crying. 

She drops her hand idly and he’s wheezing. 

El’s playing with him. She’s making him believe that she’s going to spare his life. It makes her laugh. It’s a laugh of sadism and one that’s mixed with utter pain. 

"Eleven…. let's go  **home** ." He wheezes, croaks, she’s unsure of the word to use. His words make her furious. It makes her sick to her stomach. 

What exactly was home? 

Her home was gone. 

Her home had kissed her goodbye and told her that everything would be okay. She failed to protect her home. Her home was Michael Wheeler. 

And he was  dead . 

El doesn’t remember much about what happens next. Her mind goes blank and her ears ring. There’s blood trickling from her ears and she doesn’t know why. Her small hands are wrapped around Brenner’s throat, blood down her nose and tears falling on his face. She presses her fingernails into his skin and she feels the blood draw from the wound. She also feels his pulse slowly fade. 

She stands from his limp body and looks back, in hopes that Mike would wake up from whatever knocked him out. But it was futile. He was gone, and she couldn’t do anything about it. 

_ “Oh uh, I think we’re in trouble.” Mike says before Hopper and that sends both teens into giggles.  _

El had been so unaware. She had been so stupid. She should’ve died. She should’ve died instead of him. He had a bright future ahead of himself. He had so many bright qualities. He was a team player, he loved music, he wanted to be a writer — She was nothing. She was an experiment gone wrong with no place to go. She was nothing. 

She’s crying and pleading for him to wake up, already forgetting about Brenner but it doesn’t work. He won’t move. 

“I won’t be mad if it’s a prank. Mike, wake up.” 

_ Was El truly meant to be happy?  _

**“El!”** Mike shakes her awake and finally, she’s awake. Their bedroom barely has light, only illuminated by the lamp on their side and she’s heaving. When her eyes adjust and she sees that he’s okay, she’s clinging onto him. She’s holding him the tightest she possibly could. 

“You’re alive.” She whispers out. Her throat is absolutely destroyed and she knows that she’s been screaming in her sleep. It happens. It happens a little too much for her taste. “Mike, oh my god.” 

She kisses him, softly before wrapping her arms around him. A twenty-one year old Michael Wheeler only holds his girlfriend into place and lets her cry his fears out. 

“He came back and he hurt you. He killed you.” She hiccups through her tears and he shakes his head. 

“I’m here, El. I promise. Nothing is going to happen to me. To us.” He promises but she knows that if Brenner were to come back, she’d save him over herself. 

She falls asleep with his heartbeat by her ear, as a reminder that he’s with her. And that he’s everything she’ll ever need. 

Mike is home. 

**Author's Note:**

> originally, this wasn’t going to be a nightmare fic!! i was going to have mike die and well, rip. but i don’t want my friends sad so i gave them a little happy ending at the end. <33 
> 
> i hope you enjoyed this and i’m sorry for any mistakes, i’m half asleep.


End file.
